Chief of Police Jim Doherty
Chief of Police Jim Doherty was the technical advisor to the Dick Tracy creative team from 2011 through 2015. Early Life and Education Jim Doherty was born in San Francisco, California, where his dad introduced him to mystery fiction, before he could even read, by faithfully reading the Dick Tracy ''strip to him every Sunday. This interest in the ''Dick Tracy comic strip, and in crime fiction in general, along with his having both a grandfather and an uncle (among other family members) working in law enforcement, inspired him to pursue a career in police work himself. After graduating from Bellarmine Prep, a Jesuit high school in San Jose, California, Jim earned a bachelor's degree at the University of California at Berkeley. During his undergraduate years, he began his law enforcement career, first as a civilian employee of the campus police, then as a part-time police officer with the Berkeley Police Department. Chicago A few years after graduating from Cal, Doherty moved to Chicago, Illinois (the purported inspiration for Dick Tracy's City), where he worked in federal law enforcement. Shortly after his arrival in Chicago, he met Kathryn Kozlowski, a native of Illinois, at a young adults’ event sponsored by Holy Name Cathedral, the church they both attended. The two fell in love and were married shortly afterwards. Doherty lived in Chicago with his wife, Katy, while serving in several law enforcement positions, including a stint as a sergeant in the police force of a national railroad serving 46 states. More recently, Doherty, has moved to a small town in rural, agricultural part of the Midwest, where he serves as the Chief of Police. Writing Career Shortly after meeting Katy, Doherty began to write crime fiction, true crime, and critical articles about crime fiction and its history. His works were accepted by various magazines and anthology publications. His first book, Just the Facts – True Tales of Cops & Criminals, was a collection of true crime articles. Many of them had been published previously, but a few of them were original to the book. His second book, Raymond Chandler – Master of American Noir, was a collection of lectures about the legendary creator of private eye Philip Marlowe. An e-book available only on the Internet, it was used as the textbook for an on-line class about Chandler that Barnes & Noble Booksellers offered on their website. Jim also was hired to teach the class. This was a work-for-hire piece, and, when B&N discontinued their on-line classes, the collection of lectures was dropped from their website. Since Jim does not own the copyright, the book will probably not reappear in any form. His first novel, An Obscure Grave, features Dan Sullivan, a young police officer who has been featured in several of Jim's short stories. The novel, which has received some acclaim (see "Awards" below),was released by Pro Se Productions on 17 June 2018. Association with Dick Tracy Jim was invited to contribute to the PLAINCLOTHES website, started by Mike Curtis and Joe Staton. He wrote two prose stories about Tracy for the site: “Murder Is My Hobby,” in which Tracy and his team pursue a serial killer who is traveling the world re-enacting the crimes of famous murderers, and “The Blind Side,” in which Jim fictionalized several events from the career of famous real-life Chicago police officer Frank Pape, and inserted Tracy in Pape's place. Based on the strength of those stories, Mike Curtis offered Jim the position of Police Consultant when Curtis and Staton were offered the opportunity to take over the Dick Tracy strip. In addition to keeping the police work authentic and the locales correct, Jim also writes the captions for the CRIMESTOPPERS’ TEXTBOOK panel on the Sunday strips. He also introduced a new feature in the strip, DICK TRACY’S HALL OF FAME, which replaces CRIMESTOPPERS once a month. In each HALL OF FAME, a noteworthy real-life police officer is profiled. Jim Doherty is also a contributor to the Dick Tracy Wiki. Shortly after the beginning of 2016, Sgt. Doherty announced that his association with Dick Tracy ''had ended, and that his last day as the strip's police technical advisor had been on Dec. 31st, 2015. He gave no specific reason for his departure. He was replaced by Lt. Walter Reimer. A script of his was used in the fifth Minit Mystery, published in April - May 2019. Awards *Received a Spur Award from the Western Writers of America in the Best Short Non-Fiction category for "Blood for Oil," one of the original chapters from ''Just the Facts. ''It told the story of the Osage Indian Murder Case during the 1920s. This was the FBI's first high-profile investigation. *He was a finalist for a Dagger Award, given by the British Crime Writers Association, in the special "Debut" category for his first novel, ''An Obscure Grave. *Doherty accepted the Harvey Award for Best Syndicated Strip in 2013 along with artist Joe Staton on behalf of the entire creative team at the Baltimore Comic Convention. In 2014 Doherty, along with Staton, writer Mike Curtis, and inker Shelley Pleger, accepted a second Harvey in the same category. The creative team (including Doherty) received the award again in 2015. *At his training academy operated by the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA, Doherty finished at the top of his class and was named the "Honor Graduate" for his academic record. *Doherty was recognized as "Officer of the Month" by his department for intervening when he was called to the scene of a disturbance. When he arrived, he saw two men arguing, one of whom suddenly pulled a knife and tried to stab the other. Doherty pulled his weapon and was about to shoot the assailant, but held his fire because the crowded lunchtime conditions made the use of firearms dangerous to innocent bystanders. He, his partner, and a Chicago police officer apprehended the assailant after a foot chase. Notes *Chief Doherty, along with the other members of the current creative team, has appeared in strips recognizing holidays and other special occasions. *A character based on (and named after) Chief Doherty appeared in the original novel Dick Tracy Goes to War. *Additionally, a character based on Doherty has appeared in the Dick Tracy comic strip. He was depicted as a uniformed officer in Tracy's department, working with Mugg the police dog. *Doherty has stated that one of his favorite Dick Tracy storylines is the "Homeville's New Police Chief" sequence, which ran from September 16th, 1935 through March 7th, 1936. This storyline can be found in its entirety in The Complete Dick Tracy Vol. 3. In a sense, Doherty has followed in Tracy's footsteps by becoming a small-town police chief himself. Doherty's "Minit Mystery," titled "The Occam's Razor Case," was a sort of "in-between-quel" to this sequence. Set During Tracy's tenure as Homeville's police chief, it depicts the heretofore untold tale of his investigation into the murder of a Homeville police officer. Category:Creators Category:Real People